Panaji: The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restore in the electoral rolls the names of Goa resident Paresh Salgaonkar and his five family members that were deleted during the SIR exercise.
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The Goa bench of the HC, comprising Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar, gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by Salgaonkar and his family members, residents of the Santa Cruz assembly constituency.
The Salgaonkars had challenged the removal of their names from the voters' list by the ECI during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise after their Form 8 application for a change of address was rejected.
Advocate Vivek Rodrigues, representing Salgaonkar and his family, told reporters that the high court ordered that the petitioners' names be restored to the electoral rolls within 10 days.
Rodrigues said that the name of the petitioner (Salgaonkar) was on the electoral rolls earlier, and he had been casting his vote since 1995, but his name was deleted because he had changed his residence.
Despite filing Form 8, which was for the change of residence, his name was deleted, he added.
The lawyer said Salgaonkar and his five family members were 'not allowed' to be on the rolls.
Rodrigues said the petitioner had filed appeals before the ECI, which were rejected, following which he filed the writ petition before the Bombay HC.
After the HC order, advocate Gaurish Agni, representing the ECI, sought a stay on the verdict pending a challenge before the Supreme Court. The HC, however, rejected the plea.
The bench said, "We decline to stay the directions given in this order since they pertain to the inclusion of petitioners as voters in the voting roll."
"The request is therefore rejected," it said.
Salgaonkar and his family members had filed the writ petition before the high court in September this year. The hearing in the case had begun on September 28.
